22 Best Yoga Accessories for Deepening Your Practice in 2022: Manduka, Lululemon, Gaiam

By Sara Coughlin

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If you’ve been practicing yoga at home with just your yoga mat and nothing else, adding a couple yoga accessories or props to the mix could level up your flow in ways you wouldn't expect. Maybe a block under your knees makes seated forward fold feel more accessible; or perhaps laying a silky eye pillow over your face during savasana helps you relax. Whether you’re a yoga expert or just beginning to try yoga, yoga accessories can be game-changing. If you’re looking to make your practice more challenging, cultivate proper alignment, or just feel more comfortable during yoga class (whether in-person or via a yoga YouTube channel), the right prop can get you closer to your goal.

"With students of all shapes, sizes, and ages practicing yoga, props can offer accessible variations so everyone can experience the postures truer to their body's individual needs," Kelly Colleen, director of programming at YYoga, tells SELF. Jennifer Brilliant, yoga therapist and instructor, echoes the sentiment that props can benefit everyone (from beginners to seasoned yogis, from home practitioners to studio enthusiasts), explaining how, exactly, props can change all types of yoga experiences: "Props can be helpful in yoga practice for giving support, increasing comfort, offering stability, managing variations in anatomical body proportions, and allowing for distinct levels of intensity for poses."

If you’re ready to add to your yoga gear collection, you’re in luck—we’ve highlighted some of the very best yoga accessories and props on the market right now, from major brands like Lululemon and Manduka, plus smaller, expert-approved businesses like Tools for Yoga. Read on to find the best yoga equipment for your practice.

Jake Panasevich, yoga instructor and health-science journalist, lists yoga blocks as one of the most essential items for all yoga students, with Gaiam's blocks ranking as his go-tos. Panasevich also notes that the material of your blocks can make a big difference in their function: "Blocks of different firmness can be helpful for different pose variations. I prefer wooden, cork, or firmer foam blocks because they are more stable." What you get in stability you lose in portability—Brilliant points out that wooden and cork yoga blocks, specifically, tend to be heavy, so go for a foam option if that's important to you (she likes the blocks from True Blue).

If you want something a little smaller than a standard yoga block, many brands make half-size blocks for subtler modifications. Brilliant likes placing her half wood blocks under her pelvis during reclining hero's pose, while Colleen recommends Canadian brand Halfmoon's Chip Foam blocks for hot yoga, because they come with sturdy, washable covers.

Manduka

Amazon

Etsy

Standard Dose

Tools for Yoga

Tools for Yoga

A staple of yin and restorative yoga practices, a high-quality yoga bolster provides support, stability, and cushion during grounded poses. "They can make many poses more accessible and comfortable," Colleen explains. "For example, it can often be uncomfortable to lie on the floor on the backside of the body in savasana, corpse pose—the use of a bolster underneath the knees can provide a student the comfort to be able to relax better into the resting phase of the practice." (This writer personally loves using a bolster for a supported child's pose.)

Both Colleen and Brilliant give a shout-out to bolsters that come with removable and washable covers—from Halfmoon and Minga Lily, respectively—which they consider to be a key feature in a bolster. Panasevich notes that heavier, sturdier bolsters will last longer and feel better during your practice. Lightweight or inflatable bolsters might be the less expensive options, but they won't have the same stabilizing effects you want in this prop.

REI

Halfmoon

Amazon

Minga Lily

Yoga straps provide length and space where they’re needed, without the student having to strain or push themselves into a given asana, Colleen explains: "Someone with a long torso and short arms is going to have more difficulty in a binding posture as opposed to a student with a short torso and long arms.... The use of a strap to make one's arms longer will be beneficial in cultivating true comfort and calm within the pose, rather than fighting and forcing to grab hold of something."

With that in mind, you don't want a strap with much give or stretch—Panasevich likes a cotton strap for this very reason. His top pick is Gaiam's strap, which features the standard D-ring fastener, which allows for fluid adjustment throughout class. For other D-ring options, Brilliant recommends the nine-foot-long belt from Tools for Yoga, while Colleen likes B Yoga's practice strap. If you want to try something more automatic than a D-ring, Colleen points to Halfmoon's quick-release strap that comes with a buckle fastener.

Walmart

Halfmoon

Saks Fifth Avenue

Tools for Yoga

Where absorbent towels come in handy when you’re warming up (and, in a heated yoga studio, staying hot), blankets are a necessity for a rewarding cooldown. Both the Yogitoes yoga mat towel from Manduka (Panasevich's favorite) and Lululemon's yoga towel (Colleen's recommendation) fit the length of a yoga mat, wick away excess moisture, and maintain a grippy surface, even when you’re sweating buckets through your vinyasas (don't forget your water bottle). And, if you don't use your towel during class, it’ll come in handy for your post-practice shower.

Meanwhile, not only can a blanket help you feel cozy during corpse pose, it can also reduce pressure on your points of contact with the mat (say, under your knees during cat-cow pose), Colleen says. Brilliant always buys the solid color handwoven blankets from Tools for Yoga. For a patterned option, our commerce editor had these blankets on her Amazon wish list when outfitting her apartment for her ideal yoga home practice.

Amazon

Amazon

Lululemon

Tools for Yoga

The world of yoga props goes well beyond the essentials listed above. From grounding sandbags to soothing eye pillows to yoga wheels, these accessories can further intensify and deepen your practice, helping you feel wholly engrossed in the entirety of your flow. Colleen recommends B Yoga's wheel to supplement backbends and other heart-opening yoga poses and Halfmoon's sandbags for their easy to use zippered closures. Brilliant describes Tools for Yoga's sandbags as "very sturdy, yet quite soft," and says that Minga Lily's silk eye pillows are filled with organic flaxseed, lending them a pleasant weight.

B Yoga

Mukha Yoga

Tools for Yoga

Minga Lily

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